Shell employees help clean beaches

Katy-area residents go to Galveston

More than 350 Shell and Motiva employees, retirees, family members and friends helped clean up Galveston Beach on Sept. 17 as part of the Texas General Land Office's Adopt-A-Beach fall cleanup.

Shell volunteers helped the cleanup effort by removing debris from a six-mile radius of San Luis Pass on Galveston Island.

Shell was the largest corporate sponsor of this year's cleanup and assembled the biggest corps of volunteers. The company also contributed $10,000 to the volunteer effort.

Because of a convergence of currents in the Gulf of Mexico, Texas beaches receive large amounts of marine debris.

Since the inception of the Adopt-A-Beach program, more than 328,000 volunteers have picked up more than 6,200 tons of marine debris, some originating from as far away as South America. Shell and its affiliates have supported the program since 2000.

The Texas Adopt-A-Beach Cleanup, which began in 1986 on Padre Island, is part of the Ocean Conservancy's International Coastal Cleanup project. It is the world's largest one-day volunteer effort to remove marine debris